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1 1 (December 18, 2017)

handle is hein.congrec/stdhomuil0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 




                   CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE

U                             COST ESTIMATE
                                                               December 18, 2017


                                   H.R. 2595
            Strengthening the Department of Homeland Security
                           Secure Mail Initiative Act

             As ordered reported by the House Committee on the Judiciary
                               on December 12, 2017


U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) in the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) mails about 4 million documents each year to applicants for immigration
services, including employment authorization, permanent residence, and travel
authorization. H.R. 2595 would require CIS, within one year of enactment, to allow
applicants to use certain mail security services offered by the Postal Service (USPS)
when they receive mail from CIS. Persons who choose such services would pay an
additional fee that would be set by CIS and intended to recover the full costs associated
with providing the service, including CIS administrative costs and USPS charges for
those services.

Using information from CIS and USPS, CBO expects that people who choose to use
enhanced mail security would have to pay a fee of about $3 to $4 per document. That fee
would cover the difference between the cost for current mail delivery and the cost for the
enhanced security, plus a small amount for CIS administrative costs. Using information
from CIS, CBO estimates that at least half of the affected applicants would choose to pay
the additional fee.

The Postal Service would earn about $2 more per delivery for the enhanced mail security.
Thus, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would increase net income for the USPS by
roughly $5 million annually, beginning in fiscal year 2019; CIS indicates that it does not
expect to implement the bill until late in 2018. CBO further estimates that enacting
H.R. 2595 would have no significant net effect on direct spending by DHS because the
department would collect and spend roughly the same amounts in future years to process
requests for enhanced mail security for CIS documents.

Enacting H.R. 2595 would affect on-budget direct spending by DHS; therefore, pay-as-
you-go procedures apply. However, CBO estimates that any such effects would be
insignificant in each year. Enacting the bill would not affect revenues. USPS cash flows
are classified as off-budget and thus are not subject to pay-as-you-go procedures.

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